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SOPA/PIPA: Internet Blacklist Legislation

SOPA/PIPA: Internet Blacklist Legislation

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) (originally known as the E-PARASITE Act) and its Senate counterpart the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) (originally the Combating Online Infringement and Copyright Act (COICA)) were a series of bills promoted by Hollywood in the US Congress that would have a created a "blacklist" of censored websites. These bills were defeated by an enormous online campaign started by EFF and a handful of otherorganizations, which culminated in the Internet Blackout on the January 18, 2012.

Although the bills were ostensibly aimed at reaching foreign websites dedicated to providing illegal content, their provisions would allow for removal of enormous amounts of non-infringing content including political and other speech from the Web. The various bills defined different techniques for blocking “blacklisted” sites. Each would interfere with the Internet's domain name system (DNS), which translates names like "www.eff.org" or "www.nytimes.com" into the IP addresses that computers use to communicate. SOPA would also allow rightsholders to force payment processors to cut off payments and advertising networks to cut ties with a site simply by sending a notice.

These bills are targeted at "rogue" websites that allow indiscriminate piracy, but use vague definitions that could include hosting websites such as Dropbox, MediaFire, and Rapidshare; sites that discuss piracy such as pirate-party.us, p2pnet, Torrent Freak, torproject.org, and ZeroPaid; as well as a broad range of sites for user-generated content, such as SoundCloud, Etsy, and Deviant Art. Had these bills been passed five or ten years ago, even YouTube might not exist today — in other words, the collateral damage from this legislation would be enormous.

There are already laws and procedures in place for taking down sites that violate the law. These acts would allow the Attorney General, and even individuals, to create a blacklist to censor sites when no court has found that they have infringed copyright or any other law.

Julie Samuels, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization founded in 1990 to confront issues related to free speech, privacy, and consumer rights, commented, "It's not just Hollywood versus the tech community; it's Hollywood versus Internet users, which is crazy, because Internet users could be everybody, including a...

Bob talks to Rainey Reitman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has created a website called Global Chokepoints that tracks pending or existing legislation worldwide (often pushed by the US and Hollywood) that would kick people or websites off the internet.

Last year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation published a report analyzing the FBI's use of National Security Letters from 2001 to 2008, concluding that the FBI might have violated the law as many as 40,000 times during that period. In many cases the companies involved -- including phone companies, Internet service...

Last week’s historic protests made clear just what the tech community and Internet users are capable of accomplishing when they act together – not only have the Protect IP Act (PIPA) and its House counterpart, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), been tabled for now, but in a welcome...